Chapter 554 – Inspectors

Chapter 554 – Inspectors

Nick waited on top of a building in the Outer City.

There wasn't much for him to do anymore.

Everything had already been taken care of, and he had already said his goodbyes to the few people who were still relevant to him.

Some people from Sky Dream.

A couple of the Specialists from the city.

The Heroes.

From time to time, Nick looked down at the city.

'I changed things,' he thought. 'This is the city that I always wanted to see.'

Yet, whenever he thought about these things, he also felt empty.

In the beginning, he still felt a bit of achievement and excitement.

But now, it wasn't very impactful anymore.

Yes, he had changed the lives of thousands of people for the better, but when compared to the mountain of guilt and shame, this wasn't much.

10,000 people.

Nick had helped 10,000 people.

But to get to his goal of one million people, he needed to improve another 99 cities.

One percent.

All of his work over the last five years only dealt with one percent of his guilt.

It was so much.

Nevertheless, he wouldn't stop.

He would continue.

Nick lifted his head as he noticed four distant figures coming closer in the sky.

'They're here,' Nick thought as he stood up.

All of the melancholy and aimlessness vanished from Nick in an instant, and his determined gaze instantly returned.

This wasn't just a mask he put on.

He actually immediately felt significantly better.

The four people stopped in the sky above Crimson City and looked at it for a while.

They were inspecting its composition and analyzing what the citizens were doing.

Nick had to wait almost five minutes until they came down to him.

Nick recognized one of them, but he had never seen the other three.

"Simon," Nick said respectfully with a nod.

Simon Francium looked back.

"Nick," he said with a neutral tone.

Surprisingly, his neutral tone wasn't really distant.

It was truly just neutral, which was different from the last time they had talked.

Back then, Simon's neutrality had been a sign of distance, but now, it wasn't.

"Oh?" Mentos uttered with fake interest, hiding his annoyance.

"The Crimson Sea destroyed a huge part of the city something like 15 years ago, and the city just recently managed to rebuild. The last time I was here, construction had just finished," Simon explained.

"Oh, that explains things. Thanks," Mentos answered.

"But that big part to the west is new," Simon added. "What happened there?"

"I noticed that as well," Marvin said as he cross-referenced the city's shape with the maps stored in the headquarters. "About six square kilometers of city were added to the west. Nick, what was your motive behind this expansion?"

"Housing, jobs, and security for our resources," Nick said. "The majority of the added city is fields, which exist to harvest carbon for our steel. Additionally..."

Nick talked about the reason for the expansion for a couple of minutes.

"Why use that much steel just to include these fields in the city?" Mentos asked innocently. "A couple of Extractors should be enough to defend the fields."

"Jobs," Nick answered. "If the fields are inside the city, they are safe, and normal people can easily enter and exit. More jobs mean less unemployment. Additionally, it opens a completely new branch for the people. Carbon harvester is a completely new job that normal people can do that hasn't existed before."

Then, Nick talked about jobs, housing, and economics for a couple of minutes.

"A waste in the short-term," Leopold commented coldly from the side, "but a good investment in the long-term. The city's carbon is unassailable and renewable. What about the iron?"

"The plan I drafted for the future includes building a big underground tunnel towards our iron mine, which is around four kilometers to the southwest," Nick answered.

"And the light?" Mentos asked immediately.

"Artificial light is very easy and cheap in Crimson City," Nick answered before talking about Sky Dream and their two light Specters.

"And what if something happens with Sky Dream?" Mentos asked. "You are opening yourself up, giving them a vulnerable point to attack."

"They would never do that," Nick said with full confidence.

Mentos did his best to suppress his snort of disdain. "You can count yourself lucky if you haven't experienced a revolt within the last five years."

"Oh, people tried," Nick said. "I had plenty of attempts, but those are in the past. They wouldn't dare to try another one."

Mentos just looked at Nick with an unimpressed gaze. "You're overconfident."

Nick just looked into Mentos' eyes. "There are 100 Newbies, 210 Johns, 65 Veterans, 25 Experts, 10 Specialists, and 5 Heroes working directly in the government. All of them work under the Governor and me. We own a third of all Experts, a third of all Specialists, and every single Hero. Even if all of Crimson City banded together, they wouldn't win, and they all know that."

"Revolution is suicide."

This took the four people by surprise.

That was... a lot!

"Right, the Aides," Marvin added from the side. "I remember overlooking the creation of this new position."

Leopold also nodded from the side. Naturally, he had read up on Crimson City before coming here.

"You are trying to keep that many Heroes under the same banner in the city?" Mentos asked with skepticism. "That sounds very risky."

"Why?" Nick asked.

"Because all of them have proven time and time again that they can use every opening to get ahead in life. Even if it means stepping over corpses and breaking the rules," Mentos said.

Nick nodded. "Because they are selfish, right?" he asked.

"That's your way of phrasing it," Mentos said.

"So, because they are selfish," Nick repeated, but this time not as a question.

"Their selfishness is the very reason why they won't revolt," Nick said.

Mentos raised an eyebrow.

"They want to become stronger. They want to be Agents and Protectors. They want that more than anything."

At that point, Marvin interjected. "And the position of Aide ties their future prospects to the health and reputation of the city and the Governor."

Nick nodded. "Exactly."